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Mindfulness & Meditation

Mindfulness is simply the art of being awake in the moment, of bringing our attention into the now. Of tuning into the present, stealing our minds and slowing down. Being awake in the moment brings us time to be in creation rather than in reaction. In this place of being, we can choose to move our focus of attention from what we don't want to have happened, to what we do. Then we can consciously create the steps to take us there.

Mindfulness is a practise that builds new pathways of connections in the brain. By being aware in the moment of a neurocircuitry we can make the changes in our feelings, thoughts and behaviour. We can interrupt the pre-programmed response.

We can use a set of tools to bring our attention into the present:

  • Focused Breathing to Change Emotional States and to Regulate the Nervous System
  • Awareness of Self
  • Observation of Surroundings

By listening, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and feeling; it will bring us back home to ourselves, grounding us into our bodies and into the now creating a safe place that our amygdala likes which then encourages our hippocampus to open up and be receptive.

What Mindfulness is not

Mindfulness is something many people have misconceptions about. We associate meditation and mindfulness with relaxation and stress relief, and although that can be a happy side effect, it is not the goal.

It is not a religious thing, although it has its roots in Buddhism, mindfulness is not a religion.

Some people believe that mindfulness or meditation is a way to change thoughts and not think any more. They think mindfulness and meditation are difficult, and it takes a particular kind of mind to be able to do it, again not true.

And equally, it is not easy. We are very busy creatures and have been conditioned to be preoccupied with the past or future and have a hard time focusing in on the moment.

Some believe mindfulness is all about here in the now and having no connection or desire to create a better future for yourself. But it is more about creating a balance and a conscious bridge between the future and the now.

It can sound like mindfulness and meditation is wishy-washy and can't be scientifically studied, but a lot of studies in the field of psychological science has proven that it is simply untrue.

Harmonia CMMC

5 core components of Mindfulness

There are 5 core components of Mindfulness, that when we start to practise it day to day, we will see a shift in our internal and external worlds.

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Attention

Simply means to take notice of what is occurring at this moment. It does not matter what it is, it could be an internal feeling, or an emotion. It may be a series of thoughts; it could be tasting something you are eating or smelling, or it could be something outside yourself, like a conversation or even listening to the wind in the trees. Whatever it is, it's about you, being in connection with what's happening for you in the here and now.

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Open awareness

Means that rather than being judgmental with ourselves and others we start to create a mindset that becomes aware of that judgement and then through mindfulness practise begin to let the judgement go.

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Acceptance

In mindfulness, rather than fighting experiences or avoiding experiences; it encourages you to lean into those experiences. Leaning into the thoughts and feelings and do not run away from them. And in doing so, without the need to change those experiences, without fighting those experiences, those thoughts or feelings, etc. you can just ‘be’ with them. Accepting them for what they are without your mind getting involved in the judgement of them.

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No identification

No identification simply means you are not your behaviour, you are not your emotions or thoughts. They are by products of a set of judgements and labels you took on board when you were a child, reinforced overtime. This is not who you are, you are way more than that. You are way more than the sum of someone else’s misjudgements and limited projection of who they thought you were.

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Choice

When we give ourselves permission to experience emotions, to accept them and to observe them; we give ourselves some distance from them. We buy ourselves some time to respond. We step outside our automatic responses and give ourselves the gift of choice, the gift of how to respond in any given situation.

Mindfulness is a lot more than a strategy to manage difficult situations, it is a way to cultivate a more balanced relationship with oneself in relation to life.

Understanding Mindfulness and Meditation

Sounds Easy Right!?!

MIND LESS NESS

On the face of it, “Mindfulness” sounds easy and many of us will be thinking 'Yeah, I'm quite mindful in my life' but there are many occasions when we are careering through life, mindless of what is happening around and inside of us.

Some examples of mindlessness activities;

  • Rushing Through Activities Without Being Attentive to Them
  • Breaking or Spilling Things Because of Carelessness Inattention, When We Are Thinking of Something Else
  • Failing to Notice Subtle Feelings of Physical Tension or Discomfort
  • Finding Ourselves Preoccupied With the Future or the Past
  • Snacking Without Being Aware of Eating

Living in a perpetual state of mindlessness of not noticing what is going on, in or around our bodies and minds, and can lead us down a path to ill health. Failing to notice the subtle feelings of physical tension that our jobs or relationships are giving us can lead to burn-out and ill-health. We are being given important signals from our bodies every-day, but our conditioning is such that our awareness is drawn away from the body to outside of ourselves, to what could be or what has been rather than what is.

And nowadays so many of us eat whilst pre-occupied with their screens, at your desks still working, watching t.v. or just simply ruminating over what happened that day; draws our mind away from mindfully eating our food. So, the “I'm full” signals go unnoticed, we don't even realise what we have put into our mouth. Mindlessness is in very small things; in the habits we do without even thinking.

Practicing Mindfulness

IN ORDER TO CULTIVATE MINDFULNESS, WE NEED TO ADDRESS THE AUTOMATIC PATTERNS THAT CAN PREVENT US FROM Practicing THOSE 5 KEY COMPONENTS.

Once we accept that we are often not attentive to ourselves and what is going on around us, that we are often preoccupied with what is about to happen or what has happened rather than what is happening; we can start to make the changes that are needed to bring a more mindful practice into our lives.

We try our hardest to not be “here” in the present moment and are shocked that days and weeks fly by. We don't stop to ask ourselves, “why?”. Maybe that is because we don't really want to know the truth…. That we hate our jobs or lifestyle, or we are hanging out with toxic people, or our environment is energetically wearing us down. To acknowledge these thoughts or feelings would require us to own it, and it would then be up to us to do something about those things, and some people are not ready for that.

Many people start the practice of mindfulness and meditation as another kind of escape from the self. They start off thinking that the practice will take them away from what they are experiencing, to leave the pain and to experience bliss.

But that is not the focus of mindfulness and meditation. The focus is, on leaning into ourselves some more, on just being with whatever “is” and accepting that without judgement and without identifying or wanting to change that, just be it, in all its gory glory, is challenging but through that practice, you realise you have a choice and with that comes true power. True autonomy and sovereignty of self to choose how to respond to life, rather than being in reaction to life at the mercy of past programs of behaviour that no longer serve you. It provides the opportunity to be, authentically, “you”.

Which is why an extensive practice is needed day to day, without that, nothing is going to change. Practice in the form of body scans, breathing exercises, meditations; daily practices that you can incorporate into your life, encouraging you to apply the knowledge that you learn during your 1:1 counselling sessions, as and when needed.

All of this is necessary to integrate mindfulness, otherwise, it's just another tool that isn't being used.

Mindfulness is a way of living, of changing one's reality for the better, raising our vibration and growing in awareness of self and other. To have the change, we must first become the change.

What you put in, you get out…..!

Mindfulness Meditations

We have over 50,000 thoughts per day, and some of them can be rather handy. They can be creative and inspiring thoughts that can dream up new ideas and help make exciting plans.

They can solve problems and find solutions, but some can be very problematic. They can prevent us achieving and actively engaging in life. We can be caught up in worry and fear, ruminating about the past and fretting about the future.

We use all kinds of coping strategies to deal with difficult thoughts, which in turn create difficult feelings and habits of behaviour.

We can try suppressing them, brushing them under the carpet, decompartmentalising them, but they tend to get triggered at a later date and show themselves if they haven't been resolved.

We are professionals at distracting ourselves with other activities, friends, we can self-medicate with alcohol and drugs and TV; but as soon as we stop the distractions the thoughts and feelings simply reappear. And we can challenge them by comparing our experience with those less fortunate and find counter arguments, but we then spend a lot of our time in our heads.

All of these strategies take up a lot of energy, and we find ourselves in inner-conflict and having to use will-power to temper our minds. Whilst all this is happening, we find we are living in our heads and not taking up space inside our whole body.

We lose attention in the present moment of being, and because of this many “think-feel” their feelings. By using mindfulness, we can focus attention on one point and this point can be viewed as an anchor. And we can always return our attention to this anchor as and when needed, which can then reconnect us to the present moment.

  • Observe Your Thoughts
  • Take Thoughts Less Seriously
  • Decrease Need to Challenge Thoughts
  • Let Thoughts Come and Go
  • Let Go of the Struggle

Anchoring into the present moment…. An anchor is like a fixed point that connects us or reconnects us with the present moment. Our breath and body, an object, a sound, a smell, anything we can deliberately focus our attention on can be used as an anchor.

Mindfulness = attention in the present moment using an anchor.

Mindfulness meditations help us to use the breath as an anchor of attention. We focus our attention on the breathing and once we start doing this we can notice when our attention is not focused on the breathing.

There is only one way of noticing that you are not present, or not thinking, and that is by being at a place that is not present or not thinking.

Mindfulness pulls your attention from the thoughts that you are thinking and reconnects you to an anchor that helps you stay connected to the present moment. As soon as you are not connected to that anchor, you must be somewhere else, and then you can consciously reconnect to your anchor and back to the present moment.

The ability to observe and notice thoughts when attention is drifting away is reinforced through mindfulness practice. Meditation is not a way of reaching higher states of being and connecting to another dimension, but a way to reconnect with the full experience of this present moment and through this connection observe when the mind is taking over and bring attention back to this present moment again. Embodying what it truly means to be alive in the here and now.

What is the difference between Mindfulness and Meditation?

Mindfulness and meditation, are like cousins that often hang out together to reduce stress, create clarity, focus and cultivate a deeper understanding of the self.

Mindfulness is a mental state characterised by being fully present and engaged in the current moment. It involves paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without judgment, and can be applied to any activity. It encourages a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings and how you feel. Using breath as an anchor, it can bring you back into your body and out of your head. It can reduce stress, improve focus and enhance overall well-being.

Meditation is a tool designed to train attention and awareness into a state of being; in the present moment, in the “now”. Meditation often involves sitting or lying down in a quiet space, focusing on the breath, a mantra, a sound, or a voice.

There are various types of meditation such as mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, and body scan meditation. Each type has its unique techniques and goals and can last from a few minutes to an hour or more.

In essence, mindfulness is a way of being, a state of awareness that can be applied to various activities throughout your day. Mediation, on the other hand, is a specific practice or set of practices aimed at training the mind to achieve specific mental states.

Harmonia CMMC

BUILDING BETTER FUTURES

Using these simple tools, by focusing on what we do want to have happened, changing the structure of our sentences and actively rewriting those negative beliefs we hold about ourselves, our abilities and our place in this world will have a huge impact in our lives, our children’s lives and for future generations to come.

“Mindfulness is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves”

NHAT HANH